India on Sunday said it was good that the Obama administration recognised the links between the Inter-Services Intelligence and Haqqani network of Taliban, amid a raging United States-Pakistan row over the spy agency's support to the dreaded terror outfit.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, currently holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London, on Friday expressed fear that he may be sent to the United States to face possible criminal charges punishable by death for publishing some 250,000 leaked American diplomatic cables.
Eight Chinese nationals have been arrested on charges of visa violation after police raided a fortified house-cum-monastery in Chauntra village of Mandi district.
As India gears up to honour its pravasis on January 9 to mark their contribution in the nation's development, rediff.com presents perspectives from eminent writers on the Diaspora. Kicking off the series is Ambassador T P Sreenivasan, who points out that the change of the Diaspora policy put in place by Rajiv Gandhi following the military coup in Fiji and his decision to stand by them, was the one defining moment in India's dealings with its overseas family.
'If at all,' says Suhasini Haidar, Foreign Affairs Editor, CNN-IBN, 'Devyani Khobragade is to avoid facing a full trial, the process of that negotiation must start immediately, for which the current acrimonious atmosphere must be improved. It is no more than the US was willing to do for Raymond Davis; the Italian government for its sailors; and India for Captain Sunil James and Vijayan in Togo. Devyani Khobragade is not accused of charges anywhere as serious they were, and whether Preet Bharara's office recognises it or not, she is a diplomat who represents a proud country that has taken the insult to her as a personal insult to the country.'
Denouncing India's attempts to get Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade full diplomatic immunity, United States law enforcement officials warn that it will set a terrible precedent. Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa reports from Washington, DC.
'This arrest was totally unnecessary and disproportionate to the gravity of charges. What was truly required was a more measured and calculated approach, keeping in mind the strain such an action could cause to the growing bilateral relationship between these two great nations.' Indian-American organisations condemn Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade's arrest.
No theory would ever justify the public humiliation of the acting head of the consulate of a friendly country. Whatever be the eventual solution, grievous damage has been done to her personally and to the relations between the two countries, says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Veteran diplomat Ranjan Mathai on Monday assumed charge as new Foreign Secretary succeeding Nirupama Rao and said he would try and work to restore "trust and confidence" in Indo-Pak relations.
While the number of Indian students who have applied for visas to study in the United States has increased by 20% this year, the government has issued clear warnings to students against checking for authenticity of applied colleges and defaults in visa process.
India on Wednesday termed as "disappointing" a Denmark court's refusal to allow the extradition of Purulia arms drop case mastermind Kim Davy and strongly rejected the argument that prisoners are subjected to torture in India. "The Kim Davy verdict is very disappointing. We reject the argument that prisoners are subjected to torture or that human rights of the accused will be violated," said Home Minister P Chidambaram.
The five Pakistani sailors, staying at a police station in south Mumbai after being rescued by Indian Navy in the high seas in March, flew to their country on Monday evening, the police said.
A diplomat from the Pakistan High Commission on Friday visited a police station in South Mumbai where five sailors from Pakistan are staying since March. They were rescued by the Indian Navy in the high sea.
The United States has sympathised with Krittika Biswas, daughter of an Indian diplomat who has sued New York City for illegally detaining her, but insisted that she did not enjoy any diplomatic immunity.
Indian Consul General in New York has said the United States State Department is wrong in its reading of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and asserted that diplomatic immunity is extended to family members of consular officers.
When diplomat Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade was indicted by a grand jury on January 9, she had full diplomatic immunity and the proceedings against her should have been dismissed, Daniel N Arshack, her attorney told the court.
Ravi Batra said that the Vienna convention on consular relations required the New York City government to inform the consulate of a signatory country if a citizen of that country had been arrested.
Diplomatic immunity does not apply to family members of consular officers, United States State Department has said, a day after the daughter of an Indian diplomat filed a law suit against New York City, alleging that she was falsely arrested and suspended for sending obscene emails to teachers at her Queens High School.
The Indian man arrested in France on May 10 on suspicion of having terror links has no connection to any Indian terrorist organisation, authoritative sources have told ANI.
Bevan, who will take up his appointment in November 2011, has studied Social Anthropology at Sussex University before joining the Foreign Office in 1982 and has served in a number of bilateral and multilateral missions overseas.
The American Embassy in Mumbai has scheduled a its third Super Saturday on June 19. This event is used to meet the increasing demand for visas, the embassy said in a statement.
Noting that Indians have been benefited most from the H-1B and L1 work visas, a senior US official has said there have been some cases of abuse of these visa categories in India.
A group of 44 Indians have been evacuated from Abidjan, the capital of civil war-torn Ivory Coast, to neighbouring Ghana, taking the total number of Indians who have been shifted in last one week to 110.
Pakistan on Thursday freed 89 Indian prisoners, including fishermen, from a jail in the port city of Karachi as part of a process initiated by the two countries to speed up the release of people held in each other's prisons for inadvertently crossing land and maritime boundaries.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Union government for "total inaction" in dealing with prolonged incarceration of several foreign nationals, mostly Pakistanis, in Indian jails despite having completed their sentences and directed their repatriation within a month.
Sabrina De Sousa, a United States consular officer in Milan, was abandoned by her own government and left to fend for herself in an alleged CIA kidnapping case in Italy. Rediff.com's George Joseph narrates her story.
Two Indian nationals, who were being held hostage for about 20 days in the Chinese trade hub of Yiwu, were on Wednesday shifted out of the town for safety by a team of Indian officials after intense negotiations. Shyamsunder Agrawal and Deek Raheja are out of Yiwu and on the way to Shanghai, said a top official the Indian embassy in Beijing.
Devyani Khobragade, deputy consul general at the Indian consulate in New York, was arrested on charges that she allegedly presented fraudulent documents to the United States State Department in support of a visa application for an Indian national employed as a babysitter and housekeeper at her home in Manhattan.
Pakistani security and intelligence operatives detained a US national in Peshawar for not possessing valid travel documents and took him to an undisclosed location for interrogation, officials said. The American, identified as Aaron deHaven, was detained in the posh University Town area of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Monday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against the backdrop of violent protests in Gulf, West Asian and North African regions, which is home to lakhs of Indians. Krishna is understood to have briefed Dr Singh on the various steps taken by his ministry to ensure the safety and security of Indians living in these regions. The prime minister was briefed about the contingency plans of the ministry in case of any threat.
Ten of the 22 Indian traders, charged with smuggling diamonds worth $7.3 million (about Rs 36.5 crore) into China, were on Wednesday sentenced to varied prison terms ranging from 23 months to six years by a Shenzhen court, which ordered the deportation of the remaining 12.
Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to form a Joint Reconciliation Commission comprising the Foreign Ministers and military and intelligence officials as part of enhanced bilateral consultations in the run-up to the reduction US troops in the war-torn country.
The US national identified as Raymond Davis, a member of the staff at the American consulate opened fire after two armed men riding a motorcycle pulled up alongside his car at a traffic light in the Mozang area of Lahore, city police chief Aslam Tareen said.
Expressing serious concern over their prolonged imprisonment, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Centre to release and repatriate within four weeks 61 Pakistani nationals languishing in jails in India despite having undergone their punishment for various offences.
With India's international engagements expanding at a rapid pace, the ministry of external affairs is facing an "acute shortage" of personnel and is planning to induct 500 officers in the next few years to meet its requirements.
'Imagine a scenario where a terror strike by Pakistan-supported jihadis causes thousands of deaths in India. India in retaliation destroys terror camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.' 'There is a clamour for revenge in Pakistan and that country begins to fuel its missiles for a nuclear strike against India and that is detected by Indian satellites.' 'No sane government in India will then wait for the nuclear bombs to fall on Delhi before launching its own strike. To be effective, this may well involve nuclear weapons.' Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) says the change in the 'No First Use' pledge in the BJP manifesto is long overdue.
British socialite Jemima Khan has offered to help Wikileaks founder Julian Assange after he was jailed over allegations of sexual misconduct originating from Sweden. "I am here because I believe in the principle of the human right to freedom of information and our right to be told the truth," she added. Four others, including film director Ken Loach, joined Khan to raise the surety amount.
Warning that Assange's legal pursuit in Sweden had "political motivations", his lawyer Marx Stephens said that WikiLeaks still held secret material, which would be released if it needed to protect itself.
Australia's former premier Kevin Rudd had told the United States that it should be ready to "deploy force" if attempts to integrate China do not yield results, secret cables released by WikiLeaks have disclosed, prompting an embarrassed Australia to insist that it continues to have strong ties with Beijing.
Russia has quietly cancelled the visit of a delegation to Islamabad following Pakistan's refusal to provide consular access to its national and top Al Qaeda activist Akhlaq Ahmed Akhlas, who has been sentenced to death for his role in an assassination attempt on former President Pervez Musharraf.
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances